Welcome to the website of Associate Teaching Professor Matthew T. Herbst. As a faculty member at the University of California San Diego, my professional endeavors are dedicated to undergraduate education. Through this work, I seek to show how the study of the past offers insight into our world today and furnishes critical perspectives and pertinent lessons for those willing to inquire. With these goals in mind, I direct a general education world history program, teach courses, lead programs abroad, and support many other projects and initiatives that broaden horizons and deepen intercultural understanding. An important part of my professional endeavors is to connect students with natural environments through experiential seminars in the mountains and deserts of Southern California, where we examine historical and cultural perspectives on the natural world.

I welcome ideas, suggestions, inquiries, and conversations through which we get to know one another and you help me to become a better professor and, hopefully, a better person, while having a more meaningful impact at UC San Diego. And so, let’s chat. We can even have coffee or lunch! I wish you all the best.